ANOTHER VALID REASON FOR DROPPING THE ATOMIC BOMBS. . .

In August 2014 I received an email with a story about a B-29 bomber crew on a mission to mine the waters off Kyushu Island Japan and who were forced to bail out after their plane was hit by flak. The men landed in the countryside and here is the account of one of those men, Sgt. Clarence L. Pressgrove – the last surviving member of the crew.

“I hit the ground running so I wouldn’t break my legs. I drew my chute in and hid it in a bush. Then I found a bush for me to hide in. This was after midnight on March 28, 1945.

The civilians knew we’d been shot down, so they were beating the brush, looking for our crew. When it came dawn, they were yelling and still beating the bushes.

When they got close to me, I got up and held up my hands, and the leader beckoned me to come toward him. Something told me to watch out.

As I approached, he swung his bamboo club at my head. But I’d been a track star in high school and took off running. I ran through the rice paddies — it’s just like trying to run in water. About 40 civilians chased me. One threw a brick that hit me in the head. I fell down.

Another civilian stood over me with a sickle raised to cut my head off.

Thank God the Japanese military got there to rescue me, or I wouldn’t be here today.

I was the first one caught. The military handcuffed and blindfolded me, then put me in a stake truck. The civilians yelled at me, running alongside the truck, ramming clubs between the slats to hit me in the ribs.”

After capture, Clarence and the other ten crew members were held in various POW camps and beaten and tortured. Finally they ended up at the infamous Omori Camp near Tokyo, where they remained til the war’s end.

Now so often when we talk about the necessity of dropping the atomic bombs, we list the potential causalities avoided and lives that were saved – including all of the POWs across Asia who were destined to be killed on or about August 20th 1945. This figure of course includes the civilians, and I know people have wondered and questioned if they really would have been involved.

From reading the above account we can clearly see that the Japanese people were not simply innocent bystanders and victims, but aggressive participants. They were still fanatical in support of their emperor and the cause to not only defend their homeland but to fight the enemy aggressively.

It is a widely known fact that women and children and old people were being armed and trained by the Japanese militarists to fight and defend their homeland at all costs – even if they had to use only sharpened bamboo spears and clubs to do it. One can clearly see how fanatical they were from the treatment afforded to Sgt. Pressgrove on his capture.

Also, children were being indoctrinated and primed to fight for the emperor. They were taught in school to hate the Americans and British, and were instructed in marching and drilled with wooden guns. From a very early age they were taken to the Yasukuni and other Shinto Shrines to pay homage to thewar dead, and would often be dressed in Japanese military uniforms for their visits. The brainwashing started as early as possible and so by their late teens many Japanese boys became kamikaze pilots, blindly and needlessly giving their lives for an evil cause.

PHOTOS: (Upper) Young woman learning how to use a rifle - why? To kill Allied soldiers! Schoolgirls being taught to use a variety of weapons from rifles to light machine guns.They were going to be made to fight too.

(Lower) High School students preparing for war using wooden guns, and brainwashed children dressed in military uniforms being taken to a Shinto Temple to worship the war dead and pray for victory for Japan.

(The above photos are taken from official Japanese wartime archives.)

So the premise that a lot of “innocent” Japanese civilians would be killed in an invasion is correct, but bear in mind that those civilians would also have been fanatically fighting as part of the Japanese defense force.

Having been to both Hiroshima and Nagasaki and having seen the devastation caused by the bombs, one can agree that this kind of thing must never be allowed to happen again. It was however, the only way to end the war, given the fanaticism of the Japanese military – and also the common people at that time, and to save the lives of tens of thousands of captive POWs and hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers. Let us pray that history will never repeat itself.

August 2014 I received an email with a story about a B-29 bomber crew on a mission to mine the waters off Kyushu Island Japan and who were forced to bail out after their plane was hit by flak. The men landed in the countryside and here is the account of one of those men, Sgt. Clarence L. Pressgrove – the last surviving member of the crew.

“I hit the ground running so I wouldn’t break my legs. I drew my chute in and hid it in a bush. Then I found a bush for me to hide in. This was after midnight on March 28, 1945.

The civilians knew we’d been shot down, so they were beating the brush, looking for our crew. When it came dawn, they were yelling and still beating the bushes.

When they got close to me, I got up and held up my hands, and the leader beckoned me to come toward him. Something told me to watch out.

As I approached, he swung his bamboo club at my head. But I’d been a track star in high school and took off running. I ran through the rice paddies — it’s just like trying to run in water. About 40 civilians chased me. One threw a brick that hit me in the head. I fell down.

Another civilian stood over me with a sickle raised to cut my head off.

Thank God the Japanese military got there to rescue me, or I wouldn’t be here today.

I was the first one caught. The military handcuffed and blindfolded me, then put me in a stake truck. The civilians yelled at me, running alongside the truck, ramming clubs between the slats to hit me in the ribs.”

After capture, Clarence and the other ten crew members were held in various POW camps and beaten and tortured. Finally they ended up at the infamous Omori Camp near Tokyo, where they remained til the war’s end.

Now so often when we talk about the necessity of dropping the atomic bombs, we list the potential causalities avoided and lives that were saved – including all of the POWs across Asia who were destined to be killed on or about August 20th 1945. This figure of course includes the civilians, and I know people have wonder and question if they really would have been involved.

From reading the above account we can clearly see that the Japanese people were not simply innocent bystanders and victims, but aggressive participants. They were still fanatical in support of their emperor and the cause to not only defend their homeland but to fight the enemy aggressively.

It is a widely known fact that women and children and old people were being armed and trained by the Japanese militarists to fight and defend their homeland at all costs – even if they had to use only sharpened bamboo spears and clubs to do it. One can clearly see how fanatical they were from the treatment afforded to Sgt. Pressgrove on his capture.

Also, children were being indoctrinated and primed to fight for the emperor from a very early age. They were taught in school to hate the Americans and British and were instructed in marching and drilling with wooden guns. They were taken to the Yasukuni and other Shinto Shrines to pay homage to thewar dead and would often be dressed in Japanese military uniforms for their visits. The brainwashing started as early as possible and so by their late teens many Japanese boys became kamikaze pilots, blindly and needlessly giving their lives for an evil cause.